Sports in the New York metropolitan area

Sports in the New York metropolitan area have a long and distinguished history. New York City is home to the headquarters of the National Football League, the National Hockey League, the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, the Women's National Basketball Association, National Women's Hockey League, and Major League Soccer.

The New York metropolitan area is one of only two metropolitan areas (along with Los Angeles) in the United States with more than one team in each of the country's four most popular major professional sports leagues, with nine such franchises. Counting these along with its two teams in Major League Soccer, the New York metropolitan area and media market is home to a total of 11 organizations competing in the five most prestigious professional sports leagues in the United States, and have been crowned champions of their respective leagues on a combined 54 occasions. As of 2019, five of the Metropolitan Area's nine "Big Four" franchises play their full schedules within the New York City limits. Baseball and football are the city's top sports followed.

In addition, Queens is host of tennis' US Open, one of the four Grand Slam tournaments. The New York City Marathon is the world's largest, and the 2004–2006 runnings hold the top three places in the marathons with the largest number of finishers, including 37,866 finishers in 2006. The Millrose Games is an annual track and field meet whose featured event is the Wanamaker Mile. Boxing is also a very prominent part of the city's sporting scene, with events like the Amateur Boxing Golden Gloves being held at Madison Square Garden each year.

New York City hosted portions of the 1996 World Cup of Hockey and the 1998 Goodwill Games. The 1984 Summer Paralympics were conducted in the city as well.

Major league sports

Current major league teams

The following New York metropolitan area sports teams play in one of the highest level major professional sports leagues in the United States:

There have been 14 World Series baseball championship series between New York City teams, in matchups called Subway Series. New York is one of four metropolitan areas to have two baseball teams (Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco being the others). The city's two current Major League Baseball teams are the New York Yankees and the New York Mets. The city also was once home to the New York Giants (now the San Francisco Giants) and the Brooklyn Dodgers (now the Los Angeles Dodgers). There are also two minor league baseball teams in the city, the Staten Island Yankees and Brooklyn Cyclones, with numerous independent minor league teams throughout the metro area.

Football is the city's most followed sport. The city is represented in the National Football League by the New York Giants and New York Jets. Both teams play in MetLife Stadium in nearby East Rutherford, New Jersey. In 2014, the stadium hosted Super Bowl XLVIII. The teams have an intra-city rivalry.

Basketball is one of the most widely played recreation sports in the city, and professional basketball is also widely followed. The city's National Basketball Association teams are the long-established New York Knicks and the Brooklyn Nets, who became the first sports team representing Brooklyn in over 50 years when they moved to the borough from New Jersey for the 2012–13 NBA season. The city's Women's National Basketball Association team is the New York Liberty. The first national basketball championship for major colleges, the National Invitation Tournament, was held in New York in 1938, and its semifinal and final rounds remain in the city. Rucker Park in Harlem is a celebrated court where many professional athletes play in the summer league. Because of the city's strong historical connections with both professional and college basketball, the New York Knicks' home arena, Madison Square Garden, is often called the "Mecca of basketball."

Ice hockey in New York is also widely popular and closely followed. The New York Rangers play in Manhattan in the National Hockey League, calling Madison Square Garden home. The New York Islanders, play in UBS Arena in Belmont Park. The New Jersey Devils also play in the New York metro area, playing in Newark, New Jersey affiliate, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, are based in southwest Connecticut.

In soccer, New York is represented by three teams in the top divisions for men and women, including the New York Red Bulls and New York City FC of Major League Soccer, and NJ/NY Gotham FC of the National Women's Soccer League. The Red Bulls play their home games at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey, as does Gotham FC. New York City FC, a new team owned by Manchester City F.C. and the New York Yankees, joined MLS in 2015. NYCFC has plans to build a soccer-specific stadium within the five boroughs of the city and has developed an intra-city rivalry with the Red Bulls.

Regardless of where they actually play their home games, most of these teams carry the name of and represent the entire city or State of New York, except for the NBA's Brooklyn Nets, who play in and specifically represent the New York City borough of Brooklyn, and the NHL's New Jersey Devils, who have played their home games in New Jersey since their founding in the metropolitan area via relocation and have always been in direct competition with New York-based rivals, whereas the New York Red Bulls (MLS founding franchise once named New York/New Jersey MetroStars)–who have also always played in New Jersey–were the only major professional soccer team representing the metropolitan area during their first 19 seasons. The area's women's soccer club, NJ/NY Gotham FC, also uses the two sets of initials as the MetroStars once did, although listing New Jersey first (the governor of New Jersey is the club's primary owner).

Soccer

Professional soccer, as in the rest of the country, is rapidly growing in popularity in New York. The New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer (originally known as the "MetroStars" until the team's purchase by Austrian corporation Red Bull GmbH in 2006) have played in the metropolitan area since the league's founding in 1996. Since 2010 they have played at Red Bull Arena, a soccer-specific stadium in Harrison, New Jersey with a capacity of just over 25,000. The Red Bulls have won the Supporters' Shield, awarded to the MLS regular season champion, on three occasions, most recently in 2018.

On May 21, 2013, MLS announced that the league's 20th team would be New York City FC, jointly owned by the English club Manchester City F.C. and the baseball team, the New York Yankees. They began playing in MLS in 2015 at Yankee Stadium, in the Bronx. Its eventual home stadium is yet to be determined, although team and city officials have stressed that a location within the five boroughs of New York City will be identified for the construction of a soccer-specific stadium which would be the permanent home stadium for the team. They also became the first New York City area team to win the MLS Cup in 2021.

The New York City area was once home to the New York Cosmos (1970–1984), which was arguably the most popular American soccer team ever. Playing in the FIFA-backed, major professional North American Soccer League (NASL), the Cosmos were known for fielding some of the world's greatest players including Pelé, Franz Beckenbauer, Carlos Alberto Torres, Johan Neeskens, and Giorgio Chinaglia. The acquisition of these foreign players, particularly Pelé, made the Cosmos into what Gavin Newsham called "the most glamorous team in world football", and contributed to the development of soccer across the United States. The club won the Soccer Bowl five times: 1972, 1977, 1978, 1980, and 1982. Soccer Bowl '78, which was held at Giants Stadium, saw a record crowd of 74,091 – the highest attendance to date for any club soccer championship in the United States. Cosmos road trips, described by traveling secretary Steve Marshall as "like traveling with the Rolling Stones", saw the team pack out each stadium it visited, while at home, the team attracted numerous high-profile celebrity supporters. While soccer had previously been largely ignored by the American press, the Cosmos and other NASL teams now became regular fixtures on the back pages. The NASL collapsed abruptly in late 1984, and was not replaced by a new professional soccer league until Major League Soccer's first season in 1996. A feature-length documentary about the New York club, called '' Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos'', was released in theaters in 2006. The film, narrated by Matt Dillon, featured interviews with many of the players and personalities involved with the team.

A second Cosmos club was founded in 2010, beginning play in a new second-division North American Soccer League, winning Soccer Bowl 2013 in the process. The team played its first four seasons at James M. Shuart Stadium at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York before moving to MCU Park in Coney Island in Brooklyn for 2017. The team moved back to Long Island, this time Mitchel Athletic Complex in suburban Uniondale, New York. The team most recently played in the third-division National Independent Soccer Association before going on hiatus in January 2021.

NJ/NY Gotham FC, known before 2021 as Sky Blue FC, is one of the eight charter teams and nine current members of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), the third women's professional league in the US. Since 2020, Gotham has shared Red Bull Arena with the New York Red Bulls after having played since 2009 in New Jersey at Yurcak Field on the main campus of Rutgers University. Its first NWSL season in 2013 ended in a playoff loss to the Western New York Flash. The organization had previously been charter members of NWSL's effective predecessor, Women's Professional Soccer. The league started play in 2009; Sky Blue became the league's inaugural champion despite finishing fourth in the league during the regular season, which meant that they had to play on the road in all three WPS playoff games. The defunct New York Power was the region's first professional women's soccer team, playing in the Women's United Soccer Association from 2000 to 2003.

Major League Soccer's headquarters are located in New York City, at 420 Fifth Avenue.

New York City was one of the host cities of the 1994 FIFA World Cup and will be one of eleven U.S. host cities for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Baseball

In New York, baseball is still regarded as the most popular sport, despite being overtaken by football in terms of perceived popularity (but not attendance) throughout the country, as based on TV ratings and consistent fan following for the entire season. New York is home to two Major League Baseball franchises. The New York Yankees of the American League have played in New York since 1903. Known for iconic ballplayers such as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and countless others, they play in Yankee Stadium in the Bronx and have won the World Series 27 times, the most victories by any team in the four major North American professional sports leagues. The New York Mets have represented New York in the National League since 1962. The Mets play in Citi Field in Flushing, Queens and have won five NL pennants and two World Series, thus making them one of the most decorated expansion teams in Major League Baseball. The "Subway Series" is the name used for all regular season and World Series meetings between the two teams. Before interleague play was introduced in 1997, the only instance these two teams could have played each other would have been in the World Series. The Mets and Yankees played for the World Series in 2000, with the Yankees winning the series 4–1.

For many New York baseball fans, the most intense rivalry is between the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, arguably the fiercest and most historic in North American professional sports. When the Mets beat the Red Sox in the 1986 World Series, many Yankee fans attended the parade celebrating the Mets' win, saying that "anyone who beats Boston is worth coming down for."

There have been 14 Subway Series World Series match-ups between the Yankees and their National League rivals; the Mets (once), and with the two teams that departed for California in the 1950s — the Brooklyn Dodgers (7 times) and New York Giants (6 times).

New York City is also home to one Minor League Baseball team, the Brooklyn Cyclones. They are the Mets High-A affiliate, playing in the High-A East. Two independent baseball league teams also play in the New York metropolitan area, with a third planned. The Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League have played in Bethpage Ballpark in Central Islip since 2000, and will be joined by a club playing in the city limits when the Staten Island FerryHawks begin play at Richmond County Bank Ballpark in 2022. In 2011, the New York Boulders, now of the independent Frontier League, began play at Clover Stadium in Pomona.

New York has historically had many short-lived baseball clubs including the New York Mutuals, Brooklyn Atlantics, Brooklyn Enterprise, Excelsior of Brooklyn and Brooklyn Eckfords of the National Association of Baseball Players; the New York Knickerbockers, one of the first baseball teams; the New York Metropolitans and Brooklyn Gladiators of the American Association (19th century); the New York Giants (PL) and Brooklyn Ward's Wonders of the Players' League; the Brooklyn Tip-Tops of the Federal League; the Brooklyn Bushwicks, Springfield Greys, Barton's Nighthawks, Glendale Farmers, Mount Vernon Scarlets, Union City Reds, Carlton's of the Bronx, and Bay Parkway, Bay Ridge, Cedarhurst, West New York, and Queens Club of The Metropolitan Baseball Association; and the New York Highlanders and Brooklyn Bridegrooms, precursors to the Yankees and Dodgers. There were also two Newark Bears teams Newark Bears and Newark Bears (International League). Negro league baseball teams also were present in New York, including the Brooklyn Royal Giants, Newark Stars, Lincoln Giants, Newark Browns, New York Black Yankees, New York Cubans, and the Newark Eagles.

In 1858 in Corona, Queens, at the Fashion Race Course, the first games of baseball to charge admission took place. The games, which took place between the all-stars of Brooklyn, including players from the Brooklyn Atlantics, Excelsior of Brooklyn, Putnams and Eckford of Brooklyn, and the All Stars of New York (Manhattan), including players from the New York Knickerbockers, Gothams (predecessors of the San Francisco Giants, New York Giants), Eagles and Empire, are commonly believed to the first all-star baseball games.

Two historical clubs, the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants, were among the most storied clubs in professional baseball, and were home to such players as Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays. The two teams left for California—the Dodgers for Los Angeles and the Giants for San Francisco—in 1957. The city currently has two Major League Baseball teams, the Mets (who were formed in 1962 to replace the Dodgers and, to a lesser extent, the Giants), and the Yankees.

Major League Baseball's headquarters are located in New York City, at 245 Park Avenue in Manhattan.

Basketball

The first national basketball championship for major colleges, the National Invitation Tournament, was held in New York in 1938, and its semifinal and final rounds remain at Madison Square Garden. The NIT has spawned a major early-season tournament known as the NIT Season Tip-Off; the semifinal and final rounds of that event are also held at the Garden.

At Madison Square Garden, New Yorkers can watch the New York Knicks play National Basketball Association, NBA basketball. Through the 2017 Women's National Basketball Association, WNBA season, the New York Liberty also played at the Garden, but that team's main home has changed twice since then. First, the team moved to Westchester County Center in White Plains, New York, White Plains in 2018. Then, after the team's 2019 purchase by Joseph Tsai, the owner of the NBA's Brooklyn Nets, the Liberty have moved to the Nets' home of Barclays Center in Brooklyn in 2020.

The Nets began playing in Brooklyn in 2012, the first major professional sports team to play in the historic borough in half a century. Before the merger of the defunct American Basketball Association with the NBA during the 1976–77 season, the New York Nets, who shared the same home arena (Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum) on Long Island with the NHL's New York Islanders, were a two-time champion in the ABA and starred the famous Hall of Fame forward Julius Erving. During the first season of the merger (1976–77), the Nets continued to play on Long Island, although Erving's contract had by then been sold to the Philadelphia 76ers. The Nets transferred to New Jersey then next season and became known as the New Jersey Nets, and later moved to Brooklyn prior to the 2012–13 NBA season.

The Long Island Nets, an NBA G League team, started playing at the Barclays Center in 2016 before moving to Nassau Coliseum in 2017. The Westchester Knicks started in 2014 at the Westchester County Center.

Rucker Park in Harlem is a celebrated court where many NBA athletes play in the summer league.

The National Basketball Association, NBA's headquarters are located in New York City, at Fifth Avenue's Olympic Tower.

The New York Liberty are one of the original teams of the Women's National Basketball Association, WNBA, which was formed in 1997. The team's main venue moved from Madison Square Garden to Westchester County Center after the 2017 season, and then to Barclays Center after the 2019 season. During a massive renovation project at the Garden between 2011 and 2013, the Liberty temporarily played their home games at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

From 1933 to 1935, the Newark Bears (basketball), Newark Bears team played. They changed their name to the Newark Mules.

There was briefly a Long Island Ducks (basketball), Long Island Ducks basketball team at the Long Island Arena in 1977–1978.

Long Island PrimeTime played at Louis Armstrong Gymnasium in Flushing from 2006 to 2007. They were part of the United States Basketball League.

American football

Since 2010 both the New York Giants and the New York Jets play in MetLife Stadium in nearby East Rutherford, New Jersey, 5 miles from New York City. In 2014 the stadium hosted Super Bowl XLVIII. The Giants and Jets were previously located in New York City (both teams played in the Polo Grounds (Manhattan) and Shea Stadium (Queens), and the Giants played in Yankee Stadium (the Bronx)). Neither team plays in the city itself presently, as both teams are located in the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, playing in Giants Stadium for many years before moving to MetLife Stadium. The Giants, a keystone National Football League, NFL franchise, were founded in 1925, and exist today as one of the oldest presently active organizations in the NFL. Founded in 1960, the originally named New York Titans, later branded as the Jets in 1963, were a charter member of the American Football League (AFL), joining the NFL as part of the AFL/NFL merger in 1970.

New York City also had many historical professional teams. The first professional team in New York was called both the New York Brickley Giants, New York Giants and Brooklyn Giants (unrelated to the current New York Giants), and played in the predecessor to the NFL, the American Professional Football Association, in 1921. In 1926, the New York Yankees (NFL), New York Yankees, Newark Bears (AFL) and Brooklyn Horsemen played in the American Football League (1926), American Football League, and on the same year, the Brooklyn Lions played in the National Football League before the Horsemen and Lions merged in November and folded at season's end. The Lions' NFL franchise rights were given to the Yankees, who competed in the NFL from 1927 to 1928. When the Yankees folded, its rights were given to the existing barnstorming team Staten Island Stapletons, who played in the NFL until 1932 when it stopped league play and later folded as well.

In 1930, the NFL Brooklyn Dodgers (NFL), Brooklyn Dodgers began play at Ebbets Field. The team lasted until 1944, calling themselves the Brooklyn Tigers that last season but going winless. In 1945, the team was merged with the Boston Yanks and played one more home game in Brooklyn that season as the Yanks.

Another team going by the name New York Yankees (1936 AFL), New York Yankees played in the second AFL in 1936 and 1937. The league also had a Rochester Tigers, Brooklyn Tigers club in 1936, but the team never played in Brooklyn and folded after only seven games. A New York Yankees (1940 AFL), third incarnation of the Yankees played in the third AFL in 1940 under the Yankees name, and then in 1941 as the New York Yankees (1940 AFL)#New York Americans, New York Americans. Another version of the New York Yankees was a short-lived member of the American Association (football), American Association

In 1946, the new All-America Football Conference had yet another set of Brooklyn Dodgers (AAFC), Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees (AAFC), New York Yankees teams. These clubs lasted until 1948, after which they merged with each other. The renamed Brooklyn-New York Yankees folded after one season when the AAFC–NFL merger, AAFC merged with the NFL.

The New York Yanks, New York Bulldogs were founded in 1949, sharing the Polo Grounds with the New York Giants, and then being renamed as the New York Yanks and playing in the NFL in the 1950 and 1951 seasons. In 1952, the team was relocated to Texas and renamed as the Dallas Texans (NFL), Dallas Texans.

In 1974, New York briefly hosted a team known as the Charlotte Hornets (WFL), New York Stars for the short-lived World Football League, but in mid-season the team was relocated to Charlotte and became the Charlotte Hornets (WFL), Charlotte Hornets.

The short-lived United States Football League had a team in the New York area. The New Jersey Generals played at Giants Stadium in Meadowlands Sports Complex, The Meadowlands from 1983 to 1985. At one point, the team was owned by future President of the United States, President Donald Trump. The team folded with the rest of the league.

In 1988, the New York Knights (arena football), New York Knights played for one season as part of the Arena Football League, and then ceased operations. In 1997, the AFL added two expansion franchises, the Toronto Phantoms, New York CityHawks, who played at Madison Square Garden, and the New Jersey Red Dogs, who played in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The CityHawks moved to Hartford, Connecticut and were renamed the New England Sea Wolves in 1999, and then relocated to Toronto in 2001, and renamed the Toronto Phantoms. The Red Dogs were renamed the New Jersey Gladiators in 2001, then relocated and became the Las Vegas Gladiators in 2003, before relocating again and being renamed the Cleveland Gladiators. When the Sea Wolves, who were owned by the Madison Square Garden Company and had their games televised in New York City on MSG (TV network), MSG Network, relocated to Toronto, the AFL's Iowa Barnstormers relocated to Long Island and were renamed the New York Dragons. The Dragons played in New York until 2008, when the league suspended operations; no team from New York (either the city or the state) played in the league from its 2010 revival until the Albany Empire (AFL), Albany Empire, based in the state's capital, joined the AFL in 2018.

The Jets are sometimes regarded as "''Long Island's Team''" supported by the fact that until 2008, the team trained in Hempstead (village), New York, Hempstead at Hofstra University, and used to play at Shea Stadium (former home of the New York Mets baseball team) which is close to Nassau County. Statistically, the largest percentage of the Jets fanbase derives from Long Island, hence, the Jets generally receive more media coverage in that part of New York. Fans of both the Giants and Jets traditionally root for both the New York Yankees and the New York Mets as well as both the New York Knicks and the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association, NBA and also both the New York Rangers and the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League, NHL.

Two attempts by Vince McMahon at creating a competing football league, both named the XFL, have been attempted in the New York metropolitan area. The first XFL (2001), XFL league was created as a joint venture between World Wrestling Entertainment and NBC in 2001, had the New York/New Jersey Hitmen playing at Giants Stadium for the only season they played before the XFL (2001)#End of season and failure, league folded. The New York/New Jersey Hitmen finished in third for the XFL Eastern Division for the season they played. In 2020, the New York Guardians of the newly revived XFL (2020), XFL began playing at MetLife Stadium. After the XFL filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on April 13, 2020, citing the premature suspension of their season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the New York Guardians no longer play in the state.

Along with New York's two NFL teams, the New York metropolitan area is home to the New York Sharks women's football team. The New York Sharks are NYC's premier professional women's tackle football team. Established in 1999 the Sharks are the longest-running and most decorated team in women's tackle football having won 3 conference titles (2002, 2003, 2004 IWFL East), 6 division titles (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 IWFL) and two championship titles (2002 IWFL, 2018 WFA). The Sharks play at many fields and have no official home stadium. The season for women's football is from April to June with playoffs and the championship game occurring from June to July. As of 2011 the Sharks are now with the WFA (Women's Football Allianc

along with the Bay Area Bandits, Boston Militia, Chicago Force, Dallas Diamonds, DC Divas, Kansas City Tribe, Pittsburgh Passion, and the San Diego Surge in an effort to bring together the best franchises of women's football.

The National Football League, NFL's headquarters are located in New York City, at 345 Park Avenue in Manhattan.

Ice hockey

Ice hockey has a storied history and large following in the New York metropolitan area, which is unique in being the only metropolitan area and media market in the United States and Canada to feature three major league professional teams participating in the same sport. New York City is represented by the New York Rangers, playing at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan. The New York Islanders play at UBS Arena in the Nassau County, New York, Nassau County community of Elmont, New York, Elmont. The New Jersey Devils play at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey

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